>[!abstract] >Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries, which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre ("Lovecraftian horror", 2025). >[!quote] >"People, especially games, get eldritch madness wrong a lot and it’s really such a shame. > >An ant doesn’t start babbling when they see a circuit board. They find it strange, to them it is a landscape of strange angles and humming monoliths. They may be scared, but that is not madness. > >Madness comes when the ant, for a moment, can see as a human does. > >It understands those markings are words, symbols with meaning, like a pheromone but infinitely more complex. It can travel unimaginable distances, to lands unlike anything it has seen before. It knows of mirth, embarrassment, love, concepts unimaginable before this moment, and then… > >It’s an ant again. > >Echoes of things it cannot comprehend swirl around its mind. It cannot make use of this knowledge, but it still remembers. How is it supposed to return to its life? The more the ant saw the harder it is for it to forget. It needs to see it again, understand again. It will do anything to show others, to show itself, nothing else in this tiny world matters. > >This is madness." (Bramblesand, 2021). ## References - Bramblesand. (2021). Tumblr. https://www.tumblr.com/bramblesand/641160359189839872/bramblesand-people-especially-games-get - Lovecraftian horror. (2025, January 1). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lovecraftian_horror&oldid=1263159869